- BodyBreak’s Hal Johnson on racism in media
Thursday, June 18th 2020
Hal Johnson, of ‘BodyBreak,’ talks to Adrian Cheung about the racism he faced in Canada’s media industry, how those incidents drove their will to make the famous show, and why systemic and structural racism continues to be a big problem today.
‘BodyBreak’, the popular mini-episodes on health, fitness and wellness is something many Canadians remember from the 1980s and ‘90s. But Johnson’s admission this week — that their main motivation was to fight back against racism — has added to a larger conversation about racism, anti-Blackness and diversity in Canada’s media industry.
- Does technology perpetuate racism?
Wednesday, June 17th 2020
Charlton McIlwain (@cmcilwain), Vice Provost of NYU and author of the book Black Software: The Internet and Racial Justice, from the Afronet to Black Lives Matter, talks to Saba Eitizaz about whether technology is out there to liberate and empower or to control people.
- Name dropping Dundas Street
Tuesday, June 16th 2020
Andrew Lochhead started a petition to have the Dundas Street renamed, with over 10,000 signatures and City Hall looking int it. He and Melanie Newton, an associate professor of history of the Caribbean and the Atlantic World at the University of Toronto, join Raju Mudhar, to discuss the problematic past of the namesake and how a history of colonization and its monuments can harm.
- Hustled, episode 5: Foodora couriers just won their union vote. Here’s how it happened — and what it means (aka Groundhog Day)
Monday, June 15th 2020
This Matters will broadcast the Toronto Star’s six-part podcast Hustled each Monday, where the Star’s labour reporter Sara Mojtehedzadeh takes us behind the scenes of a David vs. Goliath battle between a scrappy group of Toronto food couriers and the app company they work for.
EPISODE 5: Groundhog Day
An abrupt announcement from Foodora amid a global pandemic rattles couriers and raises questions about the company’s past. When a new player enters the scene, couriers wonder about the future of their jobs — and what they’ve fought for.
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- Lights! Camera! Physically distanced action!
Friday, June 12th 2020
How do film and TV come back safely? Emily Andras is the creator, executive producer and showrunner on supernatural horror western Wynonna Earp, and she joins Raju Mudhar to talk about television and film production and how it comes back in a COVID-19 world.
Like the rest of society, the business of film and television shut down in mid-March, affecting the plans of the some of the biggest entertainment entities in the world. As jurisdictions reopen, many productions can restart, but have to follow many restrictions to try to keep things as safe as possible on set.
